“Either I wait, or I cook, or I go get dinner for us,” said Rick Rogers, a Corpus Christi attorney.

After his wife scrubs sea scum and grit from her plastic found objects with a toothbrush, she sorts them by color and type of item. In the past four years the Fort Worth native has assembled more than 25,000 discarded plastic objects into 11 contemporary art pieces — molded clear acrylic encasements packed in a chaos of like color that hold as many as 4,000 items.

One wall-art box, with all red objects, includes a Huggies lid, Lego pieces, a “thanks for sharing” Macy’s gift card, and a milk bottle cap with Elsie the Cow’s face. Rogers’ discarded-plastic exhibition includes art photos of like objects — drink straws, pens, lighters or combs arranged for color contrast and dramatic effect.

Friends delight in their beauty from a visual distance, Rogers said. But as curiosity beckons them closer — they are shocked to recognize it’s all trash.

Some folks say art talks to them, Rogers said.

She hopes hers is screaming: Stop littering.

“Art is a very powerful way to send a message,” Rogers said. “My mission is to make people aware of the damage all this mostly one-time-use plastic is doing to our environment. We just use it and throw it away.”

Since 1986 more than 439,000 Texas volunteers have picked up more than 8,400 tons of trash along 367 miles of Texas coastlines, according to Texas General Land Office, which sponsors seasonal beach cleanups.

About 70 percent of the trash gathered is coming from people’s activities on land, said Renee Tuggle, statewide coordinator for the land office.

“Plastic is one of the most threatening forms of debris we find on our shores,” Tuggle said.

Sea turtles and other shoreline creatures eat it.

“Of 120 dead loggerhead sea turtles found along the beach in a year, 60 percent had plastic in their guts,” said Tony Amos, director of Animal Rehabilitation Keep in Port Aransas, which has tended more than 11,700 sea turtles since 1982. “It’s probable that it gives them a sense of being full and they might not get nourished as much as they should.”

The numbers of birds affected by plastic is increasing, he said.

“Albatross and other shore birds pick up a lot of plastic trash and die from the toxic components,” Amos said. “It’s excellent this woman is working to spread the word in a new way. We deal with animals impacted by human beings; it’s not ordinarily disabilities caused by nature.”

Texas State Aquarium is planning an exhibition of Rogers’ plastic trash art to share the message to its 550,000 visitors annually, officials said.

Rogers’ 3-dimensional wall art boxes — and her “Tossed and Found” and “Shoreline Abstraction” photos of plastic debris on beaches — will be part of a 2013 showcase that focuses on proper litter disposal, he said.”One centerpiece of our education program is trying to reduce marine debris,” Schmid said “We show plastic bottles with bite marks from sea turtles and marine birds and mammals with the disastrous impact of fishing line entangling them.

“What’s so unique with Shelia’s exhibit, is she’s using art where we use animals,” Schmid said. “Any way to convey this problem is hugely valuable.”

For Rogers, collecting things on the beach was once calming and inspiring for her, she said.

As a youngster on trips with her father she collected sea shells.

But now they’re more difficult to find, she said.

“If they are there you have to seek them,” Rogers said, “because shorelines are cloaked in plastic trash.

“I used to go to the beach to meditate and listen to the waves,” she said. “Now they bring in a plague of plastic, and people need to be aware of the wide range toxic effect of it on our environment.”

Toxicity climbs the food chain, she said.

Plastic doesn’t biodegrade, but it photo-degrades making a microscopic powder, Rogers said.

“These particles scatter along the bottom and small sea creature scavengers consume them,” she said. “Then larger fish, and shellfish eat those, and by the time they reach our dinner plate they can be full of poison.”

Her husband is proud of her commitment to spreading the message, he said.

“Shelia has taken her project to heart, is serious and gets out there,” he said. “It’s a bit frightening how much of that plastic material she has stored, but it’s something she’s passionate about and believes in, and I am proud of her.”

Shelia Roger’s handles each item she collects about six times, and she estimates that she has worked 10,000 hours the past four years creating her plastic trash art.

Now she’s looking for help from student art and science classes and youth groups — to help collect objects along the shoreline, and working in her studio to clean, organize and create art objects to further the message.

She dreams of a traveling exhibit to teach people across the state and nation, and is planning to apply for nonprofit status to seek environmental grants.

“Plastic pollution is a problem the world has just begun to understand,” she said. “My art can bring attention to the impact of disposable plastics that threaten marine life and habitats.